Dragon Tales
Dragon Tales is a Canadian–American34animated pre-school fantasy adventure children's television series created by Jim Coane and Ron Rodecker and developed by Coane, Wesley Eure, Jeffrey Scott, Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser. The story focuses on the adventures of two ordinary kids, Emmy and Max, and their dragon friends Ord, Cassie, Zak, Wheezie, and Quetzal. The series began broadcasting on PBS on their PBS Kids block on September 6, 1999, with its final episode airing on November 25, 2005. After the series ended, reruns remained on this channel and another channel related to it named Universal Kids until August 31, 2010. Yearim Productionswas responsible for the animation, with the expection of Koko Enterprises, which recorded the show, and The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The U.S. Department of Education, and Kellogg's are responsible for the funding. Origin Dragon Tales is based on characters created in 19783 by Laguna Beach, California artist and retired educator Ron Rodecker, Rodecker was recovering from a coronary artery bypass graftwhen he began sketching dragons as a means of symbolizing forces in life that were too big to control.35 In 1997, Jim Coane, then a producer at Columbia TriStar Television, founded the artwork and developed it into a television series with several writers. The project was considered something of a risky venture, because it was not based on a well-known franchise like many children's television programs, such as Arthur or Paddington Bear. The series was originally shipped to PBS member stations in 1995 at the suggestion of PBS, but all passed at the time. In October 1995, Jim Coane met Marjorie Kalins, senior VP of programming and production at Children's Television Workshop, and showed her the idea for the series. Kalins, loving the idea, brought the series to Children's Television Workshop, who agreed to a partnership with the Columbia TriStar Television Group. Kalins helped him and Columbia TriStar Television obtain a grant from the Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The grant proposal was written by Wesley Eure.6 As Columbia TriStar was the TV division of two major Hollywood film studios, which in turn are owned by the Sony division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Dragon Tales became one of the few PBS Kids and Sprout programs to be co-produced by a Big Six major American studio's TV subsidiary. The other PBS shows made by a major Hollywood studio were Bill Nye the Science Guy (made by Walt Disney Television) and Curious George (produced by Universal Television) In 2002, C-T was renamed to Sony Pictures Television, a company that would co-produce the third season of the program. After a tour of the lot of Sony Studios, Wesley Eure created the first treatment of the show, including the initial conception of the two-headed dragon Zak and Wheezie, back then known as "Snarf and Bugger." The series received a massive multi-million dollar grant from the federal government, beating out The Muppets and Sesame Street for the request. As part of the conditions for the grant, Eure was required to create a companion series for the program, which he titled Show and Tell Me, based on his own lecture series known as "Anyone Can Write a Book." Though the companion series was never actually created, Eure remains hopeful that it will one day be produced. Eure's name was not included in the initial credits for the series, forcing him to hire an attorney to ensure that he received credit.7 Following the development of a show bible by Jeffrey Scott, with some tweaks by writers Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser, the series was ordered for just over 60 eleven-minute episodes by PBS. Scott was assigned to write and edit half, with Ruby/Lesser assigned to the other half. At this point, the writing team was provided with a document titled "FUN AND LEARNING IN DRAGON LAND: A Writer’s Guide to Dragon Tales Educational Content" which provided directives as to which curriculum should be included within the stories, such as "emotional challenges > understanding other people’s emotions > recognizing and labeling feelings in others" and the statement that "CURRICULUM IS PARAMOUNT!" After the creation of the first script, all writing parties involved agreed that the scripts "weren’t fun or funny, they were flat and boring." The writers successfully explained to the consultants, educators and psychologists of PBS that children watch television to be entertained and must be entertained in order to be educated. They were then provided with a new directive, "Come up with entertaining stories and shoehorn in the curriculum wherever it fits!" Scott states that from the experience he learned an invaluable lesson about how to create a successful preschool series.8 Characters Protagonists Emmy and Max (top image) in a season 2 episode of Dragon Tales. Ord, Enrique, Max, Emmy, Zak and Wheezie, and Cassie in a season 3 episode (bottom image) of Dragon Tales. Emmy Emmy, voiced by Andrea Libman, is 6 years old. She commonly appears as the leader of the group until she gave her position to Enrique while helping him get used to Dragon Land. She is Max's older sister. Her best friend is Cassie, and she is perhaps known for saying, "Definitely!" whenever a good idea arises. Though Emmy is not ashamed to do "girly" things with Cassie, she is also heavily into sports and games and generally is up for any activity regardless of traditional gender roles. Though she experiences occasional jealousy of her brother, the two are otherwise usually together within Dragon Land and share many adventures. Though a brave, smart natural leader, she is also impulsive and doesn't always think before she acts. She is typically seen wearing a blue button-up dress over a red shirt.16 Max Max, voiced by Danny McKinnon, is 4 years old.17 He is Emmy's younger brother. For the most part, he and Emmy get along fine, but occasionally have arguments. He is prone to anger. His best friend is Ord. Though Max loves Emmy, he sometimes struggles with being the younger brother, upset about being too little to do certain things, or frustrated when Emmy acts in certain ways. He is of an adventurous sort and sometimes helps to give courage to Ord when he's afraid of things like visiting the Forest of Darkness. He is kind to others and encourages Emmy when she is at first reluctant about allowing Enrique to share the secret of Dragon Land. He often enjoys acting silly or goofy. He sometimes acts in a stubborn manner, determined to prove that a child his age can do things on his own, even when he really needs help. He usually wears a green short-sleeved shirt with yellow on the collar & edges of the shirt-sleeves and brown slacks.16Max was named after the son of executive producer Jim Coane.7 Enrique Enrique, voiced by Aida Ortega, is 6 years old. He is Emmy and Max's new friend who moved from Colombia to the United States and also once lived in Puerto Rico. He is raised by his father and his grandmother ("abuelita") 18 He first appears in the Season 3 episode, To Fly With A New Friend, and travels to Dragon Land with the children. His recent experiences in South America provide more opportunities for the characters to demonstrate the meanings of new Spanish words.18 He rides with Zak and Wheezie, the two-headed dragon who rarely flew with any human friends prior to Enrique's debut in Season 3. His personality is somewhat bashful, missing his homeland of Colombia and sometimes shy to join in on new experiences and saddened by reminders of times from his former home that he no longer has. However, he finds that he enjoys himself when he allows himself to let go, express his feelings and then move forward to have fun. He is described as an intensely smart and logical character. A series of moves throughout his early life has left him jaded and wary of both making new friends and trying new things. He normally wears a bright yellow short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans.18 The presence of Enrique on the program, in conjunction with Max and Emmy, was the subject of a study "'They Are?!' Latino Difference vis-à-vis Dragon Tales," which was critical of the show's use of the characters, feeling that the series ultimately "undermines multiculturalism because it fails to nurture children's ability to live fearlessly with and within difference."19 Ord Ord, voiced by Ty Olsson, is a strong blue male dragon who can turn invisible when he's scared. He is best friends with Max, who rides on his back. Ord is extremely fond of food and always carries some 'just in case'; a running gag in the show features Ord making "Dragon Corn"(Dragonland`s version of popcorn) by throwing the kernels in the air and popping them with his fire breath. He is also allergic to dandelions. Ord is afraid of almost everything, particularly darkness and thunder, and he possesses a magical tendency to turn invisible when he is upset or frightened. He wants to learn to control these fears so that he can have fun with his friends. Ord's sun-shaped Dragon Badge glows when he faces his fears.20 Cassie Cassie, voiced by Chantal Strand, is a shy, cute, demure, and sweet pink female dragon and Emmy's best friend. She possesses a magical tendency to shrink when unhappy, and may occasionally come across as slightly insecure and uncertain, and is prone to worrying. However, Cassie is distinguished by her maternal sweetness as a result of her responsibilities as an older sister and babysitter to a humongous myriad of younger siblings, and has been shown to be gifted with great singing and dancing abilities, as revealed in one episode. Cassie also is characterized by her color combination consisting of pink and yellow, albeit her body is spotted with blue speckles in some areas. Cassie knows just about everything there is to know about Dragon Land and has a deep love of fairy-tales, both stemming from her love of reading. Her dragon badge glows when she feels confident, but she often worries about making a mistake.21 Zak and Wheezie Zak and Wheezie, voiced by Jason Michas and Kathleen Barr, are conjoined twin dragons with opposite personalities; Zak (green) is the male, and Wheezie (purple) is the female. Zak prefers to pursue things in a logical manner. He is neat and clean, but also worries a lot and is pessimistic about many things. His catch phrase is "Take it easy, Wheezieee!", which he often screams when Wheezie takes off running, dragging him with her. Wheezie is very bold, enthusiastic and hyper but can also be quite messy and loud, much to her brother's annoyance, and is perhaps known for saying, "Loooove it!", when she loves something. She is a quick, wild, and free spirited. She loves to run and do cartwheels and back flips, which make Zak nauseous and dizzy. They have a shared love of music and performing and they often perform in talent shows and recitals together.20 Zak and Wheezie always fly with Enrique, although prior to his debut, Zak and Wheezie rarely flew with any of their human friends. Their dragon badges glow when they work together and get along, though will sometimes glow independently when one of them accomplishes something on their own of significance. Although they fight a lot, they are very close and care about each other a lot. Quetzal Quetzal, portrayed by Eli Gabay, is an elderly dragon who is the teacher at The School in the Sky where young dragons attend. He has an identical twin brother named Fernando who works in his garden. Quetzal typically speaks with a Mexican accent and is likely named for the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl. He tries to encourage his young charges to find solutions to their problems on their own, but is a sounding board who offers stability and comfort, as well as sound advice.20 In the episode 'Snow Dragon,' Quetzal mentions it has been hundreds of years since he visited the dragon snow sculpture as a child, implying he is centuries old. Other characters Each of the following have appeared more than once: * Arlo, a dragon who works at the Dragon Dump; he has a machine at the Dragon Dump which he calls his "lil' ol' recycler" that sorts out things that can be used again. (Scott McNeil) * Dr. Booboogone, a veteran pink dragon who works as a doctor. She wears a doctor's coat. (Shirley Milliner) * Captain Scallywag, a pirate who captains a flying galleon. (Scott McNeil) * Chilly, a living snowman who lives on top of the Stickleback Mountains with his snowdog Nippy. (French Tickner) * Cyrus, a conniving lizard-like "slinky serpent"; a minor antagonist in the show he often tries to steal others' eggs to eat. (Ian James Corlett) * The Doodle Fairy, a fairy with green skin and purple dress. She cannot talk, but she can doodle. Later installments depict the character as being crowned queen of an entire group of doodle fairies. * Eunice, a winged unicorn. She cannot see very well, so she wears glasses. (Janyse Judd) * Finn, voiced by Ellen Kennedy, is Cassie's younger brother. He is light blue, toddler-aged, attached to his blankie, and only just learning to fly. He is prone to tantrums when upset.22 * The Giant of Nod, leader of a group called the Nodlings. While much bigger than his fellow Nodlings, he is smaller than any of the main characters but is enormously strong. (Blu Mankuma, first appearance; Paul Dobson, later appearances) * Kiki, Cassie's younger sister. Kiki is light green. She seems slightly younger than Finn and still drinks from a bottle. She is attached to her "squishy," an oddly shaped fruit that she enjoys squeezing.23 (Ellen Kennedy) * Lorca, voiced by Lenore Zann, is Max, Emmy, Zak, Wheezie, Ord, and Cassie's friend. He is on a wheelchair and is incapable of flight. Despite his physical limitations, however, Lorca enjoys participating in adventures and sports activities and encourages his friends to think of new ways to do things.24 * Norm the Number Gnome, a friendly little gnome who loves to count. (Stevie Vallance) * Monsieur Marmadune, the main ruler and leader of Kingdom Come, who tells Ord that Kingdom Come is the happiest place a dragon could ever be. (Cusse Mankuma) * Mr. Pop, a gnome-like character that temporarily steals Wheezie's laugh with his sound switcher. (Ian James Corlett) * Mungus, a giant who lives in a castle in the clouds; he knows many folks in Dragon Land since he can travel far and wide in just a few steps. (Garry Chalk) * Polly Nimbus, the operator of the cloudFactory, which controls Dragon Land's weather. Her surname is a pun off of nimbus clouds. (Kathleen Barr) * Priscilla, the manager at the lost and found, who during her first appearance, was feeling embarrassed because her wings (often called "feathers") were bigger than those of other dragons. She eventually realized that there is nothing wrong with being different when the uses her big wings to help Mungus clean up his castle in a "different" way. (Erin Fitzgerald) * Sid Sycamore, voiced by (Scott McNeil), is a talking tree who loves telling (often stereotypically bad) jokes that relate to the concept of trees; the dragons' tree house is attached to him. When upset, the children will sometimes go to talk to him to be cheered up by his jokes.25 * Slurpy, Zak and Wheezie's pet furball. (Stevie Vallance) * Wyatt, a talking wishing well that immediately grants any wish for a single coin. He is old friends with Quetzal. Whenever coins pile up too high, he knows it is time for them to be emptied and taken to the First Dragon Land Bank. Earlier in the series, he was called Willy. (Doug Parker) * Emmy and Max's parents, they are Unseen Characters, but their voices are often heard off-screen in most episodes. They call out to Emmy and Max from downstairs at the beginning or end of an episode. Their mom is voiced by Kathleen Barr, and their dad is voiced by Eli Gabay.26 Episodes Dragon Tales aired a total of 93 episodes, 40 in its first season, 24 in its second season and 29 in its third season. Each episode featured two original stories, aired back-to-back, split by the interstitial song segment "Dragon Tunes," all of which were eventually released on the show's music albums. Almost all episodes from the third season, however, generally contained at least one repeat of a story from the program's second season and some were even repeats of material from that season and earlier material from the third season. In all, there were a total of 155 original stories. The show also had two specials: Let's Start a Band and Big, Big Friend Day. Let's Start a Band was a musical feature in which the characters of the show were seen alongside real human children. Big, Big Friend Day, however, was merely a special featuring episodes of Dragon Tales and Clifford the Big Red Dog, with interstitial segments introducing characters from the new series It's a Big Big World. As such, it did not contain any original Dragon Tales material.2 Main article: List of Dragon Tales episodes Dragon Tales is a Canadian–American34animated pre-school fantasy adventure children's television series created by Jim Coane and Ron Rodecker and developed by Coane, Wesley Eure, Jeffrey Scott, Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser. The story focuses on the adventures of two ordinary kids, Emmy and Max, and their dragon friends Ord, Cassie, Zak, Wheezie, and Quetzal. The series began broadcasting on PBS on their PBS Kids block on September 6, 1999, with its final episode airing on November 25, 2005. After the series ended, reruns remained on this channel and another channel related to it named Universal Kids until August 31, 2010. Yearim Productionswas responsible for the animation, with the expection of Koko Enterprises, which recorded the show, and The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The U.S. Department of Education, and Kellogg's are responsible for the funding. Origin Dragon Tales is based on characters created in 19783 by Laguna Beach, California artist and retired educator Ron Rodecker, Rodecker was recovering from a coronary artery bypass graftwhen he began sketching dragons as a means of symbolizing forces in life that were too big to control.35 In 1997, Jim Coane, then a producer at Columbia TriStar Television, founded the artwork and developed it into a television series with several writers. The project was considered something of a risky venture, because it was not based on a well-known franchise like many children's television programs, such as Arthur or Paddington Bear. The series was originally shipped to PBS member stations in 1995 at the suggestion of PBS, but all passed at the time. In October 1995, Jim Coane met Marjorie Kalins, senior VP of programming and production at Children's Television Workshop, and showed her the idea for the series. Kalins, loving the idea, brought the series to Children's Television Workshop, who agreed to a partnership with the Columbia TriStar Television Group. Kalins helped him and Columbia TriStar Television obtain a grant from the Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The grant proposal was written by Wesley Eure.6 As Columbia TriStar was the TV division of two major Hollywood film studios, which in turn are owned by the Sony division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Dragon Tales became one of the few PBS Kids and Sprout programs to be co-produced by a Big Six major American studio's TV subsidiary. The other PBS shows made by a major Hollywood studio were Bill Nye the Science Guy (made by Walt Disney Television) and Curious George (produced by Universal Television) In 2002, C-T was renamed to Sony Pictures Television, a company that would co-produce the third season of the program. After a tour of the lot of Sony Studios, Wesley Eure created the first treatment of the show, including the initial conception of the two-headed dragon Zak and Wheezie, back then known as "Snarf and Bugger." The series received a massive multi-million dollar grant from the federal government, beating out The Muppets and Sesame Street for the request. As part of the conditions for the grant, Eure was required to create a companion series for the program, which he titled Show and Tell Me, based on his own lecture series known as "Anyone Can Write a Book." Though the companion series was never actually created, Eure remains hopeful that it will one day be produced. Eure's name was not included in the initial credits for the series, forcing him to hire an attorney to ensure that he received credit.7 Following the development of a show bible by Jeffrey Scott, with some tweaks by writers Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser, the series was ordered for just over 60 eleven-minute episodes by PBS. Scott was assigned to write and edit half, with Ruby/Lesser assigned to the other half. At this point, the writing team was provided with a document titled "FUN AND LEARNING IN DRAGON LAND: A Writer’s Guide to Dragon Tales Educational Content" which provided directives as to which curriculum should be included within the stories, such as "emotional challenges > understanding other people’s emotions > recognizing and labeling feelings in others" and the statement that "CURRICULUM IS PARAMOUNT!" After the creation of the first script, all writing parties involved agreed that the scripts "weren’t fun or funny, they were flat and boring." The writers successfully explained to the consultants, educators and psychologists of PBS that children watch television to be entertained and must be entertained in order to be educated. They were then provided with a new directive, "Come up with entertaining stories and shoehorn in the curriculum wherever it fits!" Scott states that from the experience he learned an invaluable lesson about how to create a successful preschool series.8 Music and songs Dragon Tales featured an original score composed by Jim Latham and Brian Garland.33 Each episode also included an interstitial segment between story airings known as "Dragon Tunes," featuring a song either based on one of the characters of the show, or designed to teach a lesson, such as "Stretch!", which encouraged viewers to reach forward for their goals and "When You Make a New Friend," which espoused the joys of forming a new friendship. The songs were released on the albums Dragon Tunes27 and More Dragon Tunes.28 Refrences # # ^ a''' '''b # ^ a''' '''b c''' Dragon Tales – "A Magical World of Rainbow Rivers and Talking Trees", archive, on Sesame Workshop's official website # '''^ # ^''' Millennium Web Catalog. 0-infoweb.newsbank.com.dbpcosdcsgt.co.san-diego.ca.us. Retrieved on 2011-10-13. # ^ '''a b''' # ^ '''a b''' # '''^ # ^ a''' '''b # ^''' # '''^ Scott, Jeffrey. (2002). How to Write for Animation. New York: Overlook Hardcover. ISBN 1-5856-7240-8. p. 126 # ^''' Dragon Tales story - Season 2 - "Cassie, the Green-Eyed Dragon" # '''^ Dragon Tales story - Season 3 - "Feliz Cumpleaños, Enrique" # ^''' # '''^ # ^ a''' '''b # ^''' http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/tv-shows/Dragon-Tales/side-by-side/ # ^ '''a b''' '''c # ^''' # ^ '''a b''' '''c # ^''' # '''^ # ^''' # '''^ # ^''' - See "Emmy's Dreamhouse / Dragon Sales" sic regarding use as a treehouse # '''^ # ^ a''' '''b # ^ a''' '''b # ^''' # '''^ # ^''' # '''^ # ^''' # '''^ fhttps://www.gamespot.com/dragon-tales-dragon-seek/ # ^''' Dragon Tales: Dragon Wings on GameSpot # '''^ # ^''' # '''^ # ^''' # '''^ # ^''' # '''^ # ^''' # '''^ # ^''' # '''^ # ^''' # '''^ https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/dragon-tales# # ^''' # '''^ # ^''' # '''^ "Dragon Tales: More Dragon Tunes". Parents' Choice. Retrieved November 11, 2011. Category:TV Shows